I, the Original

Chapter 15: Reunions

Cyrus POV:

Chicago in the 1920s.

Prohibition. Alcohol. Gangsters.

I am not going to deny it - it is F.U.N. I met some semi-legendary shmucks like Big Jim Colosimo, Al Capone and Lucky Luciano.

I even played the gangster for a very brief stint I was dragged into, when I accidentally almost got Capone killed and had to fix it. Not that I cared much for the 'protecting the timeline' crap, which time-travelers in movies yet to be made were concerned with. After all, that was time travel. This was making history.

And was I making it.

The thought hadn't really become solid enough until World War I still happened, albeit two years later and I saw the newspaper title "The Roman Empire joins the Entente against the Central Powers".

Yep, that's right. The Roman Empire, I had saved from collapse and let expand all over again, was a global superpower and likely to stay that way. After all, I was pushing it forward. It was, after all, my personal project. In my past life, I had been frustrated at how stupid world leaders were and in this one I had become obsessed with building something better. It wasn't too difficult if you had an army of vampires, capable of mind compelling politicians. I had used it plenty of times there in order to remove corruption and incompetence and produce something of worth.

Was it somewhat artificial? Yes.

Did it matter? No.

Certainly not to the hundreds of millions of people who lived in the empire and had true civil rights, free education and equal opportunities. The position of emperor I had at first tried to make semi-elective, but that got way too messy. It was much more manageable to have a single royal family and compel them to raise their children responsibly. A bit of compulsion here and there and ta da - an effective and benevolent regime. Not to mention the massive territories - the Balkans, Italy, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, northern Africa and more. I even created a stable Arab kingdom in that troublesome peninsula in order to eradicate the seeds for Islamic terrorism.

Yep, I am awesome. I deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. End of story.

And as for Chicago. I had a reason to be here in this fine year of 1922. One very important reason - my suspicion. My hope.

Ten years ago, I had recalled that flashback from the third season, where Stefan met Klaus here and I also recalled that Katherine was keeping an eye on Stefan. So, with any hope, I will find her here again before having to deal with the whole Mystic Falls business. I was still wondering how I should play that one out. Should I allow for Klaus to break his curse? Or would it be more cruel to kill Elena just after the ritual or turn her into a vampire? Probably the latter since I had no beef with Elena Gilbert. Besides, I didn't like the thought of killing someone with the face of Katherine.

As for the present, well, I was hanging around Gloria's, waiting for daddy dearest to show up and ruin Klaus' fun. There was still no sign of Katherine, but I didn't give up hope.

Fucking world. GIVE ME MY KATHERINE!

Nonetheless, it was fun to observe Klaus's budding friendship with Stefan Salvatore. That was until Rebekah decided to ruin my mood by noticing me.

"It's been a while, Cyrus." She greeted me, while I was innocently drinking my scotch in a more discrete spot at the establishment. I was accompanied by the 400-years-old Ioannis, one of what I called my Byzantine Overseers, who were tasked with keeping an eye on my Byzantine project. "And here I thought you wanted nothing to do with the rest of us."